Girls hockey: Hill-Murray blanks Ponies

Published November 27, 2012 at 2:18 pm

MAPLEWOOD — The team that ended Stillwater’s season in the section semifinals a year ago also handed the Ponies their first loss this season as Hill-Murray cruised to a 5-0 nonconference victory on Saturday at Aldrich Arena.

The Pioneers (1-0-1), who outshot Stillwater 41-18, received two goals and from Becca Zarembinski and a goal and three assists from Sarah Bobrowski. Alexys Woodward turned away all 18 shots she faced to earn the shutout.

“I thought (Zarembinski and Bobrowski) did a really good job and really created a lot of opportunities,” Ponies coach Tony Scheid said. “For whatever reason, it was a really tough day. Hockey has to be played with a certain amount of energy and urgency and we didn’t seem to have any.”

Zarembinski opened the scoring at 13:45 of the first period and Paige Freeberg increased the lead to 2-0 less than seven minutes into the second. Bobrowski scored with two minutes left in the second for a three-goal cushion and Zarembrinski added her second goal early in the third. Jac Kaasa added a late goal for the Pioneers to build a 5-0 lead.

“I just thought we lacked discipline and took too many penalties,” Scheid said. “We were in the box too much and just had too many positional breakdowns. We had a bad game and they had a very good game so it was a combination of that.”

It was a disappointing performance against a team that Ponies (1-1-1) expect to contend with in a rugged Section 4AA field, but the coach said they will focus on looking forward rather than dwelling on a sub-par showing against Hill-Murray.

“Everything happens for a reason and you never want to walk out of a rink like that,” Scheid said. “It’s a game you want to win and play well so it’s disappointing to go there and have a game like that, but it’s going to be how we react to that and I believe in the character of these kids and we’re really excited about this team.”